16 - La Tarea (Homework, 1989), Directed by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo

Summary

Main cast

Virginia, played by María Rojo

Marcelo, played by José Alonso

Crew

Director: Jaime Humberto Hermosillo

Produced by: Clasa Films Mundiales, S.A.

Executive Producer: Lourdes Rivera

Producers: Pablo and Francisco Barbachano

Cinematography: Tony Kuhn

Sound: Nerio Barberis

Art Director: Laura Santa Cruz

Songs: ‘Bonita’ and ‘Superstición’ by Luis Arcaraz; ‘Momento’ by Los Hermanos

Martínez Gil

Plot

Set in a middle-class apartment in Mexico. We see a woman dressed in black tights and a red skirt concealing a camera under a table in the front room. A man arrives. From their conversation it transpires that she is a woman living on her own, he is divorced and the father of a six-year-old son, and they had a sexual relationship four years ago. She says she has called him because seeing a film had sparked her memory of how they had made love on the floor, and she had had a wet dream. She tries to persuade him to make love in the same place but he wants to go into the bedroom. He puts his jacket on the chair in front of the camera and blocks out the viewer, but – once she realises it – she removes it. He phones up his son who is at home alone, and reassures him that he will be home soon. They have a drink, dance, then start making love. But he says that he feels as if they are being watched. Then he sees the red light of the video camera. He asks why she has been filming him in secret and she says that it is for a homework assignment. He reacts angrily, knocks the camera, and then storms out in a huff. She then sits in front of the camera talking about her sexual hang-ups. He returns because he has forgotten his briefcase, and then is flattered to hear from her how good he is in bed. He says that he has got nothing against pornography, and then agrees to take part in her homework assignment. They strip and then make love in the hammock. Afterwards he gets up to leave, saying he has to go home to see his son. She sits in front of the camera, crying. He bursts back into the room, with two children. We discover that they are husband and wife, that they have two children, and that they have been trying to make a movie.